Spencer’s Retail Shares Surge 20 Percent after Radhakishan Damani Buys 2% Stake

Spencer’s Retail Ltd shares were locked in an upper circuit of 20% on Tuesday after data revealed that ace investor Radhakishan Damani has bought nearly 2% stake in the company during the December quarter.

Spencer’s Retail shares closed the session at Rs 89.70 compared with the previous close of Rs 74.75. The stock has jumped by a massive 51% in the last one month itself, though it is still down 58% for the last one year.

The quarterly shareholding pattern data filed by the company showed that Radhakishan Damani, who is also the promoter of D-Mart chain of hypermarkets, acquired 1.66 million equity shares of Spencer’s Retail, or a total of 2.09% stake in the company, during the three months ended December. Notably, his name wasn’t there in the September quarter list of shareholders, indicating that he had nil or negligible stake in the company then.

It is likely that Damani bought the Spencer’s Retail stake from mutual funds since their holding in the company declined to 4.81% in the December quarter from 6.28% in the September quarter.

Besides Radhakishan Damani, India Insight Value Fund also increased its stake in Spencer’s Retail to 2.94% in the December quarter compared with 2.26% in the previous quarter. Eq India Fund’s shareholding in the company also went up to 1.32% from 1.03%.

Among the entities that offloaded stake were Canara Robeco Mutual Fund and Reliance Capital Trustee Company Ltd. While Canara Robeco Mutual Fund A/C Canara Robeco Emerging Equities reduced its stake to 2.44% in the December quarter from 3.37% in the September quarter, Reliance Growth Fund sold its entire stake of 1.03% in the company during the period.

Interestingly, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund have also sold an additional 0.65% stake in Spencer’s Retail on 17 January, according to the NSE bulk deal data. However, the name of the buyer could not be ascertained.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors and Life Insurance Corporation kept its stake constant in Spencer’s Retail at 6.17% and 1.67%, respectively, during the December quarter.